Michael Chapman: Tuesday, Oct. 9

The British folk rebel you’ve never heard of.

[BRITISH FOLK] “I’m not very good at
doing what I’m told,” says Michael Chapman through a crackling phone
line from Leeds, England. That’s an understatement. At age 71, Chapman,
one of the world’s most talented folk guitar players, is still touring,
recording and making a living, completely on his own terms. “I like the
freedom of playing solo,” he says. “There are great advantages—like no
rehearsals!”

While
Chapman has maintained his “maverick troubadour” status for the last 40
years, he’s managed to collaborate with a host of big names. Mick
Ronson played guitar on Chapman’s best-known album, 1970’s Fully Qualified Survivor;
David Bowie heard the record and immediately plucked Ronson away to
become a Spider From Mars. Around the same time, Elton John wanted
Chapman in his band. He declined.

“I’ve never joined other people’s bands,” Chapman says. “I’m not a follower. I even drive like that.”

Chapman’s
story begins a lot like that of John Lennon and Keith Richards. He
started in a skiffle group and worshiped Elvis Presley. Soon, jazz and
folk found their way into his music. As the legend goes, on a rainy
night in Cornwall, Chapman—broke after having recently quit his job as a
photography instructor at an art college—offered to play guitar in a
pub in exchange for supper. By 1969, he had a record deal with Harvest, a
progressive major label associated with Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett and Roy
Harper.

Chapman’s debut, Rainmaker,
arrived that same year. Like most of his work, it didn’t sell. But with
the backing of legendary English radio DJ John Peel, follow-up Fully Qualified Survivor produced Chapman’s only chart hit, “Postcards of Scarborough,” five melancholy minutes of electric British Bob Dylanism.

After
that fleeting bout of pop flirtation, Chapman’s career has continued to
the present day. He’s released dozens of albums, and spent much of his
life on the road. “Playing guitar has brought me around the world more
times than I can remember, more times than I can count,” he says. The
major labels never could fit him into a box. He cared nothing for heavy
rock, and record execs couldn’t decide if he was a jazz artist, a folkie
or a bluesman. His solution?

“Basically, I make the records and lease them to the labels now,” he says. That includes this year’s The Resurrection and Revenge of the Clayton Peacock, released on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! imprint.

Now
a true elder statesman, Chapman is enjoying another cycle of
recognition. Bill Callahan took him on tour last year. The Fleet Foxes
have cited him as a prime influence. And last year, a remastered version
of Fully Qualified Survivor was issued by the Seattle-based
archival label Light in the Attic. It seems that decades of
uncompromised music-making are finally starting to pay off—though it’s
not something Chapman ever planned.

“I
used to read a lot of the French existentialist philosophers,” he says,
“and I’m a firm believer in the accident and just letting things
happen.”